Yerushalmi Eruvin 5:1 ירושלמי עירובין ה׳:א׳

MISHNAH: How does one complete towns? A house is recessed, a house is protruding, a superstructure¹Greek πῆγμα, τό. This expression is used for all structures that are not human dwellings. The pegma of a city wall is a watch tower. The example of the Babylonian Geonim (geonim Harkavi p. 182) is a dove-cote. is recessed, a superstructure is protruding²Since the Sabbath domain of a built-up area is a rectangle oriented NS-EW one starts measuring from a line, oriented NS or EW, which touches the built-up area but leaves the area entirely to one side of the line. In mathematical terminology the completion of the town is the area enclosed on a map of the town by its support lines oriented NS and EW.. If there were walls of ruins ten hand-breadths high or bridges or mausoleums containing dwellings³This also refers to bridges. they extend the measure correspondingly and one makes it like a rectangular table, in order to include the corners⁴Cf. Chapter 4, Note 18..

HALAKHAH: “How does one complete towns,” etc. “A house is recessed,” one moves it out in line with the town; “a superstructure is protruding,” one moves the town out in line with it²Since the Sabbath domain of a built-up area is a rectangle oriented NS-EW one starts measuring from a line, oriented NS or EW, which touches the built-up area but leaves the area entirely to one side of the line. In mathematical terminology the completion of the town is the area enclosed on a map of the town by its support lines oriented NS and EW..

²⁵This is a re-arranged and slightly shortened paragraph from Berakhot 8:7, Notes 157–158. In the last example, from Avodah zarah, the text in Berakhot attributes the word with ע to Rav and with א to Samuel. This also is required by the text here. Rav says meˋabberin, and Samuel says me′abberin. He who says meˋabberin, one adds a limb (אבר) to it. And he who says me‘abberin, like a pregnant (עוברה) woman. There, we have stated²⁶Mishnah Berakhot 8:7.: “One does not recite the benediction over a lamp unless one has profited from its light.” Rav says yeˋutu, and Samuel says ye‘utu. He who says ye′utu, but with this we shall be a Greeable to you²⁷Gen. 34:15.. He who says ye‘utu, to know, to inform the weary of wisdom²⁸Is. 50:4.. There we have stated²⁹Mishnah Avodah zarah 1:1.: “Before the holidays of the Gentiles.” Rav stated ˋedehen and Samuel stated ‘edehen. He who says ˋedehen, for the day of their misfortune(אידם) is near³⁰Deut. 32:35.. He who says ‘edehen, they are their witnesses (עידיהם)²¹Any built-up area in which from one house to the next there are less than 70⅔ cubits, is considered as 4 cubits in this respect., etc. How does Samuel deal with Rav's reason, they are their witnesses? In the future they will bring to naught their worshippers on the Day of Judgment.

³²Babli 53a. The entire Yerushalmi text is copied there by R. Ḥananel. Rebbi Joḥanan in the name of Rebbi Hoshaia: one adds a limb to it. ³³The text is parallel to Sanhedrin 11:6, Notes 68–69. He lifted his eyes and looked at him. He told him, why are you looking at me? Do I need you that you enjoy it? Thirteen years he went and came before his teacher even though he did not need him. Rebbi Samuel in the name of Rebbi Zeˋira: Was it not enough for him to have paid his respects to his teacher since anybody who pays his respects to his teacher is as if he paid his respects to the Divine Presence. Rebbi Berekhiah, Rebbi Jeremiah in the name of Rebbi Ḥiyya bar Abba. It is written³⁴Ex. 33:7. and Moses would take the Tent, etc. How far away was it? One mil³⁵2’000 cubits. Ex. rabba 45(4).. It is not written “and it was that anybody asking Moses” but and it was that anybody asking the Eternal. From here that anybody visiting his teacher is as if he was visiting the Divine Presence. Rebbi Ḥelbo, Rebbi³⁶Read: Rav. Ḥuna in the name of Rav: It is written³⁷1K. 17:1. The verse continues: By the Living Eternal … before Whom I stood., Eliahu from Tisbe said, etc. Was not Eliahu the ruler³⁸Greek τύραννος, ὁ (Arukh טרן 3). of the prophets? But it teaches that all the time he was standing before his teacher Aḥiyya from Shilo it was as if he stood before the Divine Presence. Rebbi Ḥelbo in the name of those of the House of Shilo: Even when Eliahu wanted water for his face Elisha would put it on his hands. What is the reason? Here is Elisha ben Shafaṭ³⁹2K. 3:11., it is not written here “who studied Torah”, but who poured water on Eliahu’s hands. It is written⁴⁰IS. 3:1.: The lad Samuel was serving the Eternal before Eli. Did he not only serve Eli? But this teaches that all service which he rendered before his teacher Eli was as if he rendered if before the Divine Presence. Rebbi Ismael stated⁴¹Ex. 18:12. Mekhilta dR. Ismael Yitro Parašah 1 (ed. Horovitz-Rabin p. 196).: And Aaron and all the Elders of Israel came to eat bread with Moses’s father-in-law before god. Did they eat before God? But from here that anyone who receives a friend⁴²In editio princeps of Mekhilta: Sages; similarly Babli Berakhot 64a. is as if he received the Divine Presence.

Rebbi Jacob bar Aḥa, Rebbi Yasa in the name of Rebbi Joḥanan, from where do you augment? From the lintel⁴³The basic measurement is from the lintel of the city gate. 2’000 cubits. Rebbi Yose said to Rebbi Yasa bar Aḥa: It seems reasonable only from the superstructure. But in front of the town it is unlimited⁴⁴If the city walls form a rectangle and at the corners the towers extend over the walls, one does not extend the town beyond the towers. But if there are suburban dwellings in front of the walls one extends the definition of “city” to include all of suburbia on condition that between city wall and suburb the distance not be greater than 70⅔ cubits.. He said, this also is my opinion. He said to him, what did you see to say “the superstructure”? Or should we say these in the back of the superstructure⁴⁵It is difficult to make sense of this argument. In the opinion of S. Liebermann it means that one might consider the suburb as the real town and the original town as appendix (“superstructure”) to this. Since the suburb has no walls, the entire problem of where to start measuring disappears; it is clear that one starts from the outermost wall of the outermost house.? Rav Naḥman said, at the end of the country⁴⁶He has no objection against extending the Sabbath domain of a city to contain all the country.. The word of Rebbi Simeon implies this, since “Rebbi Simeon ben Yoḥai said, I can cause that one may walk from Tyre to Sidon⁴⁷A full day’s travel. Tosephta 4:11., from Tiberias to Sepphoris, by caves and by barns⁴⁸Greek πύργος, ὁ..”

May one add superstructure to superstructure⁴⁹Are structures which are not dwellings counted as if they were dwellings so that they include an additional 70⅔ cubits from which to count the town, possibly repeating the process many times.? The word of Rebbi Simeon ben Laqish implies that one adds superstructure to superstructure, since Rebbi Simeon ben Laqish said, I can cause that Bet Maˋon be in the completion of Tiberias. You consider the stadium as if it were full of houses, and the castra⁵⁰Castra, -orum, n. a military camp; this is a dwelling. are within 70 and remainder of the stadium, and Bet Maˋon is within 70 and remainder of the castra. If one considers the superstructure, the mausoleum of Siricon⁵¹It is not clear what was the additional structure appended to the stadium, which reduces the distance to the mausoleum to 70⅔ cubits. The mausoleum itself was identified by an inscription, cf. S. Liebermann, Tarbiz 3, p.209. is not within 70 and remainder, but if one considers the pottery⁵²Even if the mausoleum should have been inhabited, the potter’s shop was not. Since together with the uninhabited appendix to the stadium it is needed to make Bet Maˋon accessible from Tiberias, this proves that uninhabited structures are counted as if they were houses., the mausoleum of Siricon is within 70 and remainder.

May one add completion to completion⁵³After the preceding argument it should be obvious that the answer is positive.? The word of Rebbi Simeon implies that one adds completion to completion, since “Rebbi Simeon ben Yoḥai said, I can cause that one may walk from Tyre to Sidon, from Tiberias to Sepphoris, by caves and by barns.” Here for walking, there for completion⁵⁴It could be that one finds a particular path that may be applied to one special situation. This does not mean that it can be applied to determine the Sabbath domain for everybody. Therefore the statement does not prove anything (but proof is not needed.).

Rebbi Aḥa said, the Elder Rebbi Ḥiyya and Bar Qappara disagree. One said, this you are saying only about a large city. But for a small town the addition should not be more than the core⁵⁵This is a very restrictive condition. For example, if a town were a square of side lengths 1, the suburbs could extend only to a distance of .212 from the walls. The previous discussion always assumed that one has 2’000 cubits outside any augmentation.. But the other said, whether large or small, 2’000 is sufficient.

Rebbi Phineas said, it happened that a bright⁵⁶Greek εὔθικτος, -ον. student studied completions for three and a half years from his teacher; he went and completed Galilee⁵⁷He found enough barns and isolated farmhouses to make the entire Galilee into one Sabbath domain.. He could not finish to complete the South before the time made it impossible⁵⁸The South is the region around Lydda. “The time made it impossible” means that the political situation changed. Since the preceding paragraphs showed that in the time of R. Simeon ben Laqish the domain of Tiberias was not extended, the time of the student must be the 4^th Century and the political situation which made the project impossible was that the Empire turned Christian..

Rebbi Abba, Rav Jehudah in the name of Rav: If a town is built like a bow, if between the ends there is [a distance of] 3’999 [cubits] he walks its entirety and outside it 2’000; 4’000 he only has 2’000 cubits from the place of his eruv⁵⁹The town is built as a semi-circle. If the radius of the circle is < 2’000, every point in the semi-disk bounded by the circle and the chord (the diameter) joining its end-points is accessible from the semi-circle. Therefore the chord is the border of the completed town and the Sabbath domain is a semi-disk of radius 4’000 plus a rectangular domain of 4’000×2’000 based on the chord plus two quarter disks of radius 2’000. This would imply that the statement of the Mishnah that a Sabbath domain always is a rectangular domain only applies to cities compactly built in the shape of a polygon, and this not in all cases; cf. Tosephta 4:4.. Rebbi Aḥa said, Rebbi Samuel explained it. If he would put his sandals at one place he could go outside and put them on; and if he would put his sandals at another place he could go outside and put them on. He could come from either side to the outside. From one side it is forbidden, from both sides it is permitted⁶⁰A line segment can be the border of the completion of a town only if all of its points are accessible from the town on the Sabbath. Therefore if the radius of the semi-circle is > 2’000, a point distant almost 2’000 from one side is not accessible from the other and the center is not accessible from anywhere. Therefore the chord cannot be the border of the completion; the Sabbath domain only is the set of all points of distance at most 2’000 from any point of the semi-circle. Babli 55a..

Rebbi Abba in the name of Rav Jehudah. If there was a large city and in it a ditch ten [hand-breadths] deep and four wide, one looks where it is full of earth and pebbles. Otherwise one considers it open⁶¹Translation and explanation are tentative. A ditch 10 deep and 4 wide is a domain by itself. If the ditch runs through the entire town, is nowhere filled or bridged, it splits the town into two separate towns; otherwise it is disregarded..

Rebbi Abba, Ammi bar Ezechiel⁶²The brother of Rav Jehudah. in the name of Rav. If a city is built on the banks of a river, if between it and the river are four hand-breadths one measures from the wall, three one measures from the outer bank of the river⁶³The bank far away from the city; the river being considered as part of the city wall. unless the river be [wide] more than 70 and remainder⁶⁴Then the outer bank cannot be considered part of the city and one has to measure the Sabbath domain from the city wall.. Where do we hold? If it descends ten hand-breadths in three [cubits] one measures from the outer bank of the river, if in four [cubits] one measures from the wall⁶⁵If the slope from the wall to the river is steep, it is considered an extension of the wall; otherwise it simply is an empty stretch of land.. So where we hold is between three and four.

Rav said, in a town built of tents, everybody measures from his tent. If there were three huts and three barns one measures from the outer one⁶⁶From the outermost tent. Babli 55b.. Issy objected, is it not written⁶⁷Deut. 23:13., a sign you should have outside the camp? How could they relieve themselves outside⁶⁸The toilets had to be outside the camp. (Even though the verse is written for a military expedition, the argument refers to the regular camp of the Israelites in the desert.) Since the camp was 12 mil wide (Chapter 3, Note 136), how could somebody on one side of the camp go and relieve himself on the other side if he could only go one mil from his tent?? Rebbi Ḥiyya the son of Rebbi Sabbatai asked, how could they go to Moses’s house of study? Moses built them three huts and three barns⁶⁹One would have expected that the Tabernacle certainly would be the equivalent of 3 huts and 3 barns, turning the camp into a formal city.. ⁷⁰Cf. Šabbat Chapter 7 Note 399, Chapter 12 Note 12. The quote of the present paragraph in Qondros Aḥaron edited by L. Ginzberg in his Yerushalmi Fragments p. 318 reads here the exact text of Šabbat Chapter 12. Cf. Babli 55b. Rebbi Yose says, because they were travelling and camping by the Word, was it not temporary? Rebbi Yose ben Rebbi Abun said, since the Holy One, praise to Him, has promised them that he would bring them into the Land, it is as if it were permanent. Because of this⁷¹That the camp could be considered a permanent city. (Qondros Aḥaron reads “R. Abun”). Rebbi Abbin said, Moses built them three huts and three barns.

“One makes it rectangular in the four directions of the world^2,Since the Sabbath domain of a built-up area is a rectangle oriented NS-EW one starts measuring from a line, oriented NS or EW, which touches the built-up area but leaves the area entirely to one side of the line. In mathematical terminology the completion of the town is the area enclosed on a map of the town by its support lines oriented NS and EW.⁷²Babli 56a, Tosephta 4:6. R. Yose here is the Tanna, ben Ḥalaphta., so that its Western direction be in the West of the world and its Southern direction be in the South of the world. Rebbi Yose said, if he does not know how to determine the directions let him go and learn from the solstices. From the place where the sun rises on the day of the summer solstice to the place where it rises on the day of the winter solstice is Eastern direction; from the place where the sun goes down on the day of the winter solstice to the place where it goes down on the day of the summer solstice is Western direction; the remainder are North and South. That is what is written⁷³Eccl. 1:6., it goes to the South and turns to the North. It goes to the South during the day and turns to the North during the night; all around in circles goes the wind, to its circuits returns the wind, these are Eastern and Western directions⁷⁴The main directions of the wind..”

One understands this for Shilo and the Temple⁷⁵They could be exactly built EW-NS; this statement is the introduction to the next paragraph about the orientation of the Tabernacle in the desert., as Rebbi Aḥa said in the name of Samuel bar Rav Isaac, how much did the earlier prophets exercise themselves to make the Eastern gate so that the sun be exactly on it on the summer solstice and the winter solstice⁷⁶It seems that one should read: the spring and autumn equinoxes, but there is no textual evidence for this.. It was called by seven names: the gate “desist”⁷⁷2K. 11:6., the foundation gate⁷⁸2Chr. 23:5., the sun gate⁷⁹Jer. 19:2., the entrance gate⁸⁰Ez. 40:15., the middle gate⁸¹Jer. 39:3. the new gate⁸²Jer. 26:10., the upper gate⁸³2Chr. 24:20.. The gate “desist” since there the impure separate⁸⁴Anybody not pure was barred from the entire Temple Mount, but those who needed a Temple ceremony for purification, such as the healed sufferer from skin disease, did come to the entrance gate of the Temple proper.; that is what is written⁸⁵Lament. 4:15., desist, impure one calls them. The foundation gate, for there practice was founded. The sun gate, since it was directed towards sunrise, as you are saying⁸⁶Job 9:7., Who says to the sun not to shine. The entrance gate, since it serves as entry and exit. The middle gate, since it is fixed between two gates⁸⁷The Temple door and the entrance gate to the Temple Mount.. The new gate, for there the Sopherim renewed practice. The upper gate, since it was higher than the courtyard of Israel and the courtyard of women⁸⁸R. Ḥananel (ad Yoma 26b, bottom) reads: since it was higher than the courtyard. Probably it means that the Eastern gate was built higher than the wall and the other gates since it was crowned by a tower depicting the fortress of Susa (Mishnah Middot 1:3).. The Temple had another distinction⁸⁹In quite a number of items was the Temple distinguished relative to the Tabernacle at Shilo..

Who was determining them the directions in the desert⁹⁰Since the Tabernacle had to be oriented strictly EW (Num. 2). Tanḥuma Bemidbar (12).? Rebbi Aḥa said, the Ark did determine the directions for them. That is what is written⁹¹Num. 10:21., then travelled the Kohatites, the carriers of the Sanctuary, this is the Ark. And the Mererites erected the dwelling before they came, the Kohatites on whom the Ark was placed.

⁹²Rashi Num. 10:25, 2:17. How did Israel travel in the desert? Rebbi Ḥama bar Ḥanina and Rebbi Hoshaia⁹³In Qondros aḥaron: R. Joshua ben Levi.. One said, like a chest, but the other said, like a beam. He who said like a chest, just as they camped so they travelled⁹⁴Num.2:17.. He who said like a beam, the collector of all camps with their armies⁹⁵Num. 10:25.. How does he who said like a beam explain him who said like a chest, just as they camped so they travelled? Just as they camped following the Word, so they travelled following the Word. How does he who said like a chest explain him who said like a beam, the collector of all camps with their armies? Since the tribe of Dan was so populous^95aGreek ὄχλος, ὁ, “multitude”. it travelled last and to anybody who had lost anything they would return it to him; that is what is written, the collector of all camps with their armies.

It was stated in the name of Rebbi Jehudah: “Also its ledges and walls were measured with it.⁹⁶Tosephta 4:7. One starts measuring not from the wall of the city or the last house but from the first place which is under the open sky.” Rav Hoshaia asked: is the airspace of a courtyard measured with it⁹⁷If the town is completed by adding suburban buildings, are only houses added or any enclosed space?? Let us hear from the following: A house which was breached on one side is measured with it, from two sides it is not measured with it. Rebbi Abbin in the name of Rav Jehudah, if its beam⁹⁸The house is considered breached only if the ceiling beams also are missing. had been removed. But if its beam had not been removed it is measured with it. If the beam had been removed is it not like the airspace of a courtyard? There it was enclosed as a dwelling, here it was not enclosed as a dwelling.⁹⁹Therefore only dwelling space is added as completion. “If he measures he should not be measuring from the center since he would lose, but from the corners.¹⁰⁰Tosephta 4:13, Babli 56b. Since one determines a Sabbath boundary as a straight line running either NS or EW it really does not matter where one starts measuring. The Tosephta states that one should not consider the starting point of the measuring as center of a circle but as a corner. The Sabbath domain always is a rectangular domain.”